Hi Everybody,
Welcome to September. Hope you had a profitable August. If you were involved in Cryptos it likely was as the value of the industry has risen by $79 Billion for a total growth of 84%!!
Today also marks the one month anniversary of the bitcoin bastard known as bitcoin cash or BCH.
So far this has been one of the most interesting economic experiments I’ve ever seen. Each individual, exchange platform, and mining pool has their own set of risks and rewards, their own perspective, and their own agenda.
The market cap of all BCH currently in circulation is holding steady just under $10 Billion making it the 3rd most valuable blockchain network. However, despite a spike around the middle of the month, BCH volumes are far lower than BTC.
Over the past 24 hours, only about $275,000 worth of BCH has traded hands, making it the 5th most traded. In comparison, BTC remains in the top spot with a 24 hour volume of $1,975,000.
For a brief time, BCH was more profitable for miners, which did cause some mining pools to switch over. However, this phenomenon has also been reversed and bitcoin is again more profitable to mine than BCH. At the moment, Ethereum is more profitable than both of them but these things tend to fluctuate rather quickly.
At this point, it’s extremely difficult to say whether Bitcoin Cash is near the end of its life cycle or just at the beginning, which is what makes it such a marvelous experiment.
@MatiGreenspan
eToro, Senior Market Analyst
Today’s Highlights
- Stellar Stocks
- Sour Buck
- Jobs Day in the USA
Please note: All data, figures & graphs below are valid as of September 1st. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you can afford to lose.
Market Overview
The Stock markets are having a slow but steady summer so far despite the record low volatility seen in July.
The Dow Jones has managed a gain of 522 for a total growth of 2.43% since June 21st (white circle on the chart below). Of course, after seeing the cryptos rise by 84%, 2.5% seems a bit boring but it’s really not.
If stocks go up by 10% in 12 months it’s generally considered a pretty good year and if we calculate from September 1st of 2016 we’re up 19.5%.
At the moment, banks are providing loans at historically low rates. So if a firm can borrow money for 1% and return even 2% in a year in the stock market it’s only good business. 2.5% in the summer alone is still an excellent incentive.
The US Dollar, on the other hand, is not so hot…
Steven’s Jawboning
Yesterday, Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin admitted that having a weaker US Dollar would be good for US trade.
Mnuchin was previously on record saying that he supports the long standing policy of the United States to maintain a strong dollar. A policy that Trump has lambasted many times. Though Steve did not go so far as to fully agree with Trump he did highlight the benefits of a weaker Buck.
The Dollar did indeed react to Steven’s statement and thwarted a somewhat solid recovery that it was working on for the past few days.
Jobs Report
What this summer really needs is a good pop.
The US Non-farm payrolls report, which comes out on the first Friday of every month is normally pretty good at creating some volatility.
Analysts estimate that approximately 180,000 jobs have been created in the US economy since August 1st. A number which is historically quite average and fairly boring.
Nevertheless, seasoned traders will be watching very closely at 13:30 GMT for any surprises in the data.
Better or worse than expected job creation, employment percentage, or average salary earnings could certainly pump some life into a market which is almost ready to awaken from her deep summer slumber.
One more thing
Litecoin and Ripple are still exploding!
They are up 16.5% and 10.5% respectively over the past 24 hours.
We’ve got 22 days left to summer. Please make the most of them!
